Dario Argento, The Italian Hitchcock.
Created | Updated Mar 15, 2003
Dario the ealy years
Dario was born in Rome in 1940 to a photographer mother and film director father. Not altogether surprising then he grew up in the world of film. When old enough Dario started work in the film industry as a critic, with his first big break being when Sergio Leone paired him up with Bernardo Bertolucci to write the script for 'Once upon a time in the west'.
Darios movies
Dario Argentos genres are horror and the giallo. (Giallo being the Italian word for yellow and refers to the colour of the book cover that the thriller genre uses when published in Italy.) Dario's style has been described as baroque, macabre, visually striking, non linear, impressionist, and surrealist. Some may disagree, but I suspect most people would agree that he seems to favour style and appearance over film content. You may find big holes in the story but his choice of set, framing, and lighting are breathtaking... along with his creativity around death. Dario is especially fond of Edgar Allan Poe, and Two evil eyes is two short films based on Poe stories. One directed by Dario Argento, the other by George Romero (who was responsible for Day of the dead trilogy). Many of Argento's films have music by Ennio Morricone. Keith Emerson (of Emerson Lake and Palmer) was responsible for the music in Inferno and several soundtracks have been performed by a rock band called 'The Goblins' with additional input from Dario himself.Dario the family man
Daria Nicolodi, the leading lady of Deep red became Darios long-term partner and muse. Dario has two daughters: Asia and Fiore. Asia came from an earlier marriage, and Fiore from his relationship with Daria. Both children have appeared in Darios films. The relationship with Daria was extremely volatile, although Daria appeared in many of Dario's films she came to stickier and stickier ends as their relationship failed.
